What went wrong in Cubs’ missed chance to complete sweep over Padres
CHICAGO — The Cubs were four outs away from sweeping the San Diego Padres and extending their win streak to six games. But the Padres scored twice — once in the eighth inning and once in the inning — to win 8-7 at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs will go home with a sour taste in their mouths — yes, they won a series over NL contenders in the Padres, but wins are at a premium in the majors, and games like Sunday’s can become “what if” moments in September.
[MORE: Cubs score two runs in bizarre fashion in first inning vs. Padres]
Cubs fans first will turn to the ninth-inning play that led to the Padres’ go-ahead run.
Closer Ryan Pressly induced a groundball from Manny Machado to shortstop Dansby Swanson with one out and runners at first and second. Swanson threw to Nico Hoerner for one out, and the Cubs’ second baseman then rifled the ball to Justin Turner at first to complete the apparent inning-ending double play.
The throw was low, and Turner couldn’t catch it cleanly. The ball spurt past him, allowing Fernando Tatis Jr. to score from third.
“It’s just that kind of tweener one — not sure if it’s going to bounce or stay up and trying to get it before it bounces and just missed it,” Turner said after the loss. “No excuses. Ball’s got to be caught.”
Of course, more than one play often dictates the outcome of a game.
The Padres started hot against Cubs right-hander Ben Brown, especially because of his command issues. The 25-year-old walked three hitters, hit another and threw 35 pitches in a three-run first inning.
“He was struggling,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after the game. “He had very little feel for it. He put it together and got out of that inning. I think kind of managed the rest of it.”
Sure, Counsell could have yanked Brown out in the first or afterward — the Padres pulled their starter, Kyle Hart, after he allowed five runs and recorded just two outs, after all — but asking the Cubs’ bullpen to cover 24 or more outs with three consecutive games on the horizon would have been a tall task. So Counsell stayed with Brown.
It almost paid off.
Brown hunkered down and worked out of trouble to pitch scoreless frames in the second and third as the Cubs took a 7-3 lead. But he ran into what ended up being costly trouble in the fourth. He recorded the first two outs of the inning, then allowed a single to Machado and a two-run homer to Jackson Merrill on a 1-0 count.
“[Brown] kind of came out and really lost the strike zone and was having trouble with the strike zone,” Counsell said. “Kept it together, and [if] he just gets one more out in the fourth, puts us in a really good position.”
It’s much easier to record 15 outs with a four-run cushion than a two-run lead. And the Cubs allowed just two earned runs over the final five innings — a 3.60 ERA. Relief pitchers have a small margin for error, and asking them to pitch that many stressful innings creates an even smaller margin.
“It all goes back to the first inning,” Brown said after the game. “If that [inning] doesn’t happen, I’m not facing Merrill in the fourth. I’m facing him in the sixth in his third time around.
“Ultimately, I put our team in the position where the game was a lot closer than it should have been … As I’m going to break down the game, I’m going to go back to the first inning and what went wrong there.”